Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 118 posts

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#91

Post by tacomonstrous »

chillwaves wrote: post #2

Some people are better athletes than others, but anyone who trains will be better than someone who does not, regardless of any innate potential. I see creativity along the same lines. Many folks are conditioned to memorize, follow processes, follow norms and paths laid by others, it may not occur to them to seek out originality. It is another form of learned helplessness. Creating is hard, especially when judged in a…

>I see creativity along the same lines. Many folks are conditioned to memorize, follow processes, follow norms and paths laid by others, it may not occur to them to seek out originality. It is another form of learned helplessness.

The same applies in the academic setting as well. When I was doing my PhD, I found myself trapped in exactly this kind of paralysis. I was very good at learning things, so everyone expected me to do well, but I had never created anything, and the idea that I ever could was so overwhelming and foreign that I couldn't even get started. It wasn't until a little over a year before graduating that I managed to get it together, and was lucky enough to pull it off in time.

Part of the problem is the romanticization of creativity, at least in my mind, as if it were an act of heroism or exceptional ability. On the contrary, it's mostly a matter of working and thinking and not giving up. Once you get enmeshed deeply enough in something, you stop wondering about if you're any good at it.

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#92

Post by tacomonstrous »

Judgmentality wrote: post #5
chillwaves wrote: post #2

Some people are better athletes than others, but anyone who trains will be better than someone who does not, regardless of any innate potential. I see creativity along the same lines. Many folks are conditioned to memorize, follow processes, follow norms and paths laid by others, it may not occur to them to seek out originality. It is another form of learned helplessness. Creating is hard, especially when judged in a…

> but anyone who trains will be better than someone who does not, regardless of any innate potential I disagree. The genetic lottery is unfair; and some people are just better than you no matter what you do, and no matter what they don't do.

There will always be geniuses, capable of feats far beyond what you could ever accomplish. As a mathematician, I'm only too aware of this.

That doesn't mean that you will not have something worth contributing. The difficult thing is to find out what that is of course!

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#94

Post by squeaky-clean »

saulrh wrote: post #35
twoquestions wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of an instance where this is true for normal people. I can see an untrained 250lb person beating a 100lb one-armed boxer, but outside such extreme disparities, training >> innate ability, at least in my experience.

> for normal people Sure is a good No True Scotsman you've got there. And I'm not even sure you'd be right ignoring that; recall that sports like boxing and MMA separate people into weight classes that are ten pounds wide . In other words, those sports think that, within the bounds of "professional", there is no amount of innate ability or training that can balance out a 25-pound difference in weight. But even if you…

> there is no amount of innate ability or training that can balance out a 25-pound difference in weight

What? Of course there is. Just at that level, the competitors are all training at their absolute maximums. There is no additional training on top of the world-class training they do that will balance out a 25-pound difference in weight.

I guarantee you a 120 pound (I'm ~145) MMA fighter can kill me with a well placed punch faster than I could even tickle them.

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#95

Post by mannykannot »

rifung wrote: post #86
mannykannot wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the punishing training regimen the Williams sisters follow, it is good evidence of biological limits on the boost training can give in tennis. I doubt it has much relevance for creativity.

I also wonder though how much of a difference it makes that the Williams sisters presumably only train with or to play against other women. Let me say that I don't disagree in the advantages of genes and sex, but from my own experience competing at a moderately high level and knowing players who competed at the highest levels, you more or less train with an expectation of what your opponents will do in mind. At least…

I am a bit skeptical that any such effects have not already been mined out in the relentless search for competitive advantage.

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#96

Post by quantum_state »

This is indeed an interesting conversation ... it seems to me that just like everything else ... being creative is a habit ... the belief that there must be a better way to do something unless proven otherwise seems to be the ultimate source of creativity ...

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#97

Post by pbhjpbhj »

epicide wrote: post #31
pmoriarty wrote: post #26

As an artist and musician, I often encourage my friends to draw something, paint something, or make some music. The reply I hear over and over again is, "oh, no, I don't have the talent" or "oh, no, I'm awful at drawing". It's like they don't realize that what they attribute to "talent" is attainable through practice and hard work. When I point that out and encourage them to just try, that it might be fun, they make…

I think a lot of it is a fear of failure. A fear of looking dumb or silly. Kids don't have an issue with that. We learn to be afraid.

I think you're close. My observation suggests that kids are used to it, everything they do is new, they're inexpert at everything. They don't expect to be good.

Adults think that they should be capable simply because one tends to get better at things as an adult. The weight of expectation makes them often worse.

My field is pottery, some adults think they can just throw a vase on their first go, kids just enjoy the experience (on the whole) and don't expect to be good at it.

Kids, once they've learnt some fine motor control, don't make kid-pictures because they're kids, they do it because they haven't practiced. Adults try, and their observation can get them a little further, but they still make the same sort of pictures and are embarrassed because it's "childish".

I recently started a sports class where I'm ranked along with 7 & 8 yo kids, an interesting and humbling experience.

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#98

Post by pbhjpbhj »

beagle3 wrote: post #78

Some studies find lefties are more creative, and some don't, see e.g. [0] for some discussion. My anecdata is that three times in unconferences for which creativity was a theme, 30%-50% of the people were lefty (compared to 10% in the general population). [0] http://mentalfloss.com/article/84560/are-lefties-really-more...

Nature or nurture - lefties perhaps have to be exercise their creativity to work around a right-hand biased world?

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#99

Post by pbhjpbhj »

randcraw wrote: post #75
supreme_sublime wrote: post #16

> Some ideas were more creative than others. For the sock, one participant suggested using it to warm your feet—the common use for a sock—while another participant suggested using it as a water filtration system. > We also ranked their ideas for originality: Common uses received lower scores (using a sock to warm your feet), while uncommon uses received higher scores (using a sock as a water filtration system). > Ove…

The article did suggest that a creative act had to be both novel and useful. There are an infinite number of useless uses for a sock. Enumerating them is not creative; it's random, like rolling a die. Creativity requires both imagination and judgement -- for each idea you conceive, you must also judge its practical utility to serve some known purpose. Or imagine some unknown purpose that it also might serve... "In sh…

There's clearly only a large finite number of possible uses for a sock - I'd say if you can enumerate ones that others wouldn't even conceive then you're being more creative. What would you call someone who can think of ways to use something that no-one/few others can?

Unfurl the sock and make a "blind man trail" as a party game. Burn the [cotton] sock and use as char-cloth. Cut up the sock and use as fuel in a tiny model steam-engine.

The judgement comes in with craft, or engineering IMO and isn't a facet of creativity per se. Like, burning the sock will create little heat and lots of fumes, etc.; the idea needed creativity. What we mustn't assume is that creation (of goods, craft items, products, whatever) requires _only_ creativity.

Re: Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

#100

Post by projektir »

twoquestions wrote: post #49
saulrh wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for normal people Sure is a good No True Scotsman you've got there. And I'm not even sure you'd be right ignoring that; recall that sports like boxing and MMA separate people into weight classes that are ten pounds wide . In other words, those sports think that, within the bounds of "professional", there is no amount of innate ability or training that can balance out a 25-pound difference in weight. But even if you…

In MMA, pretty much everyone who gets into the octagon is already training as hard as they can, so in this case you're correct that innate advantages dominate outcomes. I was more thinking outside the top 1% of any particular skill, for example when you're hiring a designer or sales staff in a normal company (as in, a not-1% company, such as a refrigerator manufacturer or something). I'm willing to concede that if yo…

Here's a difference for you where you don't need to even look at 1%: men and women.
Post reply on HN